Often when we think about mentoring for new teachers, we rightly focus on the school which is really the heart of where learning occurs for all. In my current work with school boards, an emergent design to augment school-based mentorship has been supporting ongoing communities of practice for small groups of new teachers to learn with experienced colleagues who have similar assignments and/or learning goals.
These mentoring hubs (or networks or pods or webs) foster connection, community, learning and growth for both new and experienced teachers.
Getting Started
- New teachers identify their learning goals and share these with the board-level New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP) coordinator
- Goals are clustered based on teaching assignment and common themes (e.g., early years literacy, arts-based learning, intermediate mathematics, etc.)
- For each cluster of new teachers (approx. 6 – 8), two experienced teachers are recruited to be mentoring hub leaders
- Foundational mentoring professional learning is provided to the mentoring hub leaders
Learning Designs
- Each mentoring hub meets 3 or 4 times throughout the school year, with release time provided (dependent upon occasional teacher availability)
- Authentic learning designs based on the 4 Rs are used, with the agenda for learning driven by the learners
- Participants have opportunities to engage in classroom observation and debriefing
- Board level coaches and consultants provide support to each hub
- Near the end of the school year, the mentoring hub leaders engage in an appreciative inquiry where successful practices are intentionally shared, challenges surfaced and a collaborative strategy harvest of ideas to move forward is co-developed with board NTIP leaders
Outcomes
New teachers are connected with multiple mentors beyond the school site and with each other
- While this may be especially important for “one alike” assignment teachers (e.g., Core French, Kindergarten) this model helps all teachers add strands to their mentoring web
Learning of mentors
- Co-leading the hubs increases the mentors reflection on their own practice and also fosters growth by providing system level leadership opportunities
In summary, mentoring hubs can serve as a meaningful augmentation of school-based mentorship. When new and experienced educators work and learn together all our students benefit. New teachers who receive supports through multiple models of mentorship will become the mentors for the next generation of new hires and ultimately of the students they will teach.